Who are the three most popular players at this Year's Beijing Winter Olympics? Maybe everyone will have different answers, but Gu Ailing is one of them. In the women's freestyle ski jumping competition that ended this morning, Gu Ailing won the championship in her own sub-event. Her first and third jumps were very exciting. Her legend at the Winter Olympics is not over, followed by two of her main events, slope obstacle courses and U-shaped pools.
In the crowd who are happy for Gu Ailing, there must be the advertising department staff who endorses the brand. It is no exaggeration to say that Gu Ailing is already the athlete with the most advertising endorsements in the Chinese sports world. According to media statistics, the number of brands endorsed by Gu Ailing has reached 27!
Gu Ailing's business endorsements take 2021 as a watershed. Before 2021, Gu Ailing has 7 endorsements, mainly sports brands and ski products, but also includes some fashion and makeup products.
But after 2021, with the approaching of the Beijing Winter Olympics, Gu Ailing's commercial endorsement has shown explosive growth! From luxury goods to underwear, from cosmetics to cars, from fascia guns to paints, from coffee to soft drinks, from mattresses to health supplements... During the Spring Festival, whether you are shopping or visiting the supermarket, you can see the image of Gu Ailing. Incomplete statistics, Gu Ailing is already the athlete with the most commercial endorsements in the Chinese sports industry, with 14 more endorsements than Su Bingtian, the "Su God" who exploded at the Tokyo Olympic Games last year.
And from a historical point of view, Gu Ailing is probably already the Chinese athlete with the most commercial endorsements. Liu Xiang had 14 brand endorsements in 2007. Between 2015 and 2021, the mature athlete with the largest number of endorsements is Yi Jianlian, who has 17 endorsements.
One of Gu Ailing's business endorsements
So how much is Gu Ailing's business endorsement fee? According to 21st Century Business Review, "By 2021, Gu Ailing's endorsement fees will be about $1 million. After February 2021, she won two gold medals in the World Extreme Games and the World Championships, and the cost of endorsement began to rise. At present, the cost of a new endorsement by Gu Ailing is about US$2.5 million after tax, equivalent to RMB 15.9 million. If estimated at an average of US$1.5 million per endorsement, Gu Ailing's 27 endorsements will bring in about US$40 million in revenue, more than RMB250 million. ”
This part of the huge advertising endorsement, Gu Ailing also needs to share with her economic company IMG China subsidiary Endeavor Weimei. IMG also endorses many tennis players, including Li Na, Kei Nishikori and others.
Gu Ailing
With the tokyo olympic games last year and the Beijing Winter Olympics this year, more and more businesses have begun to choose athletes as their spokesmen.
Throughout July and August 2021, the number of athlete endorsements rose sharply, at 26 and 22, respectively. In the month that followed, it reached a peak of 30. We have also witnessed the Chinese women's volleyball team and Lenovo holding hands, Su Bingtian endorsing Xiaomi, and Olympic epee champion Sun Yiwen holding 15 brands...
In the past, merchants preferred to use entertainment stars as spokespersons. However, in recent years, the "collapse" of entertainment stars has occurred frequently, implicating related brands, so more merchants have begun to choose sports idols. On the one hand, they have the traffic that comes with sports events; on the other hand, the athletes have a healthy image, and regardless of victory or defeat, the tenacious fighting spirit they embody can bring extra points to the brand.